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Magazine Stand of the Future

Submitted by Griffey on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 08:45

Magazine Stand of the Future:

Interesting look at one possible digital interface for purchasing digital content…again, I would love to see anyone at all in the content industry thinking about libraries.



More iBook details emerge

Submitted by Griffey on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 20:43
in

More details emerged about Apple’s upcoming iBook app just a few days ago when the iPad preorders began. Two things were confirmed that will be of interested to libraries and librarians, I think.

The first is that Apple finally confirmed that you will be able to load non-DRM ePub books onto the iPad via iTunes syncing, in addition to being able to purchase DRM titles directly from Apple. This is great news for anyone who likes reading the classics, as sites like Feedbooks already have nearly all their titles up in Non-DRM ePub format. It’s also good news for booksellers who deal in non-DRM titles, as they will be compatible with Apple’s new “magical” device.

The second, and for my money, more interesting bit of info is that it looks like Apple is defaulting to allowing text-to-speech functionality, the same thing that got the Amazon Kindle into trouble with the Author’s Guild. According to the page linked above:

iBooks works with VoiceOver, the screen reader in iPad, so it can read you the contents of any page.

If I’m parsing this tiny bit of information properly, that sounds like iBook hooks into an OS level text-to-speech convertor, which means that the iPad may be a very capable device for the visually impared. I will be very, very interested to see whether the Apple VoiceOver technology is controlable at the individual book level, and whether publishers can choose to disable it for given books as they do for the Amazon Kindle.



Penguin books on the iPad

Submitted by Griffey on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 14:24
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 Here’s a demo of the sorts of ebooks that Penguin is developing for the iPad. Honestly, I find this a little uninspiring…really not very innovative. Let’s hope that other publishers can really find new ways of producing and presenting content.

 



Books vs iPad - everyone wins

Submitted by Griffey on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 12:40
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Books in the Age of the iPad

Amazing article about content vs form, and how the iPad will start a revolution of not just digital books, but it may start a rebirth of amazing physical objects.

We’re losing the dredge of the publishing world: disposable books. The book printed without consideration of form or sustainability or longevity. The book produced to be consumed once and then tossed. The book you bin when you’re moving and you need to clean out the closet.

These are the first books to go. And I say it again, good riddance.

...

You already know the potential gains: edgier, riskier books in digital form, born from a lower barrier-to-entry to publish. New modes of storytelling. Less environmental impact. A rise in importance of editors. And, yes — paradoxically — a marked increase in the quality of things that do get printed.

Every librarian who worries about the loss of printed material: Read This.



The Brads – Why DRM Doesn’t Work

Submitted by Griffey on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 08:15

The Brads – Why DRM Doesn’t Work:

An awesome webcomic about the difficulties of using Overdrive in a public library to download an audiobook.



Librivox Fundraising: Give!

Submitted by Griffey on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 12:36

Librivox Fundraising: Give!:

Librivox is an amazing site of FREE audiobooks, and needs donations to stay online. Go, give…keep free audiobooks available to everyone.



The Future Is: Swarming Intelligence

Submitted by Griffey on Mon, 02/22/2010 - 12:38
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There’s a ton of research being done these days on swarm intelligence, and how we can recreate in software the physical interactions of things like insects and schools of fish in order to more efficiently program the robots of the future. This week I saw two different examples of this online that blew me away. These aren’t products, certainly, but they point the way to a future that I’m not sure most of us will even recognize. The next 20 years will be truly unbelievable.

Take a look at both of these…trust me, it’s worth it.

Curious Displays

FlyFire



Viewfinder

Submitted by Griffey on Sun, 02/21/2010 - 22:30
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If you are among the diehard fans of Apple’s presentation software Keynote (I do all my talks using Keynote, and am an admitted rabid fanboy) I have found an amazing app that will save you time and make your presentations even better:

Viewfinder

So what’s it do? Viewfinder acts as a search tool for Flickr, allowing you to search for photos of a specific size (to fit a slide size) and a specific Creative Commons license. It then gives you one button that pushes the image into Keynote. One more button and you’ve got all the attribution information copied over.  While this isn’t going to useful to everyone, for those who find themselves creating a few presentations a year, this can save you tons of time and effort in finding images to illustrate your talks.

Head over and take a look at the video tutorials to get an idea how it works (they aren’t embeddable, sadly). There is a free trial that limits you to 2 downloads per session, but will give you a good idea of the power of the program. Check it out…you won’t be sorry!